Home > Asia > How to make peace? Colombia’s historic deal has lessons for Syria | The Guardian

How to make peace? Colombia’s historic deal has lessons for Syria | The Guardian

It’s far easier to start a war than stop one, especially when the conflict has lasted longer than many people have been alive, making peace an unfamiliar prospect.

But Colombians showed the world this week that it can be done. After 52 years of hostilities, the Colombian government and leftist rebels of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or the Farc, finalised a deal to end their war. A bilateral ceasefire is to go into effect on Monday after decades in which 220,000 people – mostly non-combatants – have been killed, more than 6 million internally displaced and tens of thousands disappeared.

Previous attempts to reach this point failed time and again. So how did they get there this time and what lessons are there for Syria and other nations in conflict?